


A Revisited Dance in the Night

by moonlightembrace



Category: Purple Hyacinth - Ephemerys & Sophism (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Kieran is Just Doing his Job, Lauren is Still Careless and Refuses to Take Care of Herself, Mentions of Episodes 2 and 3, Parallels to Episodes 2 And 3, There is No Happy Ending in This One, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlightembrace/pseuds/moonlightembrace
Summary: On that faithful night, on November 13th, XX27, after the murders of Rosa Grayson and Robert de la Roca, Lauren Sinclair chased and fought an assassin.About three months later, after another double homicide, Lauren chases after an assassin once more. And once again, she catches up with the perpetrator.Only this time, the night goes a little differently but ends the same, nonetheless.
Relationships: Lauren Sinclair/Kieran White
Kudos: 34





	A Revisited Dance in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> “There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme”  
> -Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Chosen

Lauren heard the loud wailing of the police sirens as she ran.

They’ve been crying for a while now, beginning right before she had rounded the corner and set eyes on her home. She had first heard the horrid sound of her walkie-talkie and March’s voice reporting a double murder before she even registered the loud noise piercing somewhere in her precinct.

She was running towards the crime scenes before she knew it.

She knew she shouldn’t be doing this to herself. Mere hours ago, she had been told to go home. Actually, she had been forced out of the precinct by Kym and William under accusations of looking more dead than a corpse. Her face was pale, eyebags darker than they’ve ever seen, and she seemed so much weaker than usual. Lauren was persistent in voicing that she was fine, that she could do her duties. The Lieutenant and Sergeant did not buy it.

But instead of going home, Lauren ended up roaming the streets of the cold city for hours. She couldn’t go back to the mansion, because she knew where it would lead – her locking herself in her study, eyes darting from one corner of her murder board to another, hating herself more than she ever had before.

The date of the final incoming ship carrying the nitroglycerine was coming closer and closer, the cursed thing edged into her mind and marked on the calendar on her wall.

And Lune was completely and utterly stuck.

With both sides of the law hunting them, chances for any kinds of late-night excursions were scarce. They didn’t know which leads to pursue or how to do so anymore. Nothing made sense to either member of Lune and it was getting frustrating.

Lauren had begun neglecting herself even more, barely eating or sleeping. Her entire being was focused on trying to figure out anything that she could barely do anything else. Even when she wasn’t looking at the murder board – which she knew was slowing her down and making her angrier – she thought about it no matter what else she was occupied with at that moment.

And the second she heard about the murders her legs carried her towards danger without a second thought.

It wasn’t just guilt that kept her on her feet, wasn’t just the remorse for the new people Ardhalis had just lost.

She wanted to know why they were killed.

Was the killer an amateur that killed because of personal reasons? Or someone murdering in cold blood, because they could?

Or was it a Phantom Scythe assassin? And if it was, there had to be a reason for the killing. The victims must have known something that made them a target. This could prove to be useful for Lune’s investigation, her mind reasoned.

She wanted to know something for once –- she was getting tired of constantly being in the dark, of constantly running into brick walls. The craving for that rush of relief and adrenaline she had gotten whenever Lune had done something or she alone had managed to connect a few dots was getting stronger.

She needed to catch the killer.

Lauren arrived at the scene quickly. The bright blue and red lights were blinding, but she could detect the yellow tape surrounding the area.

She looked around for anyone familiar, even though the masks and the lights made it difficult. The fact that she had never been this exhausted before really wasn’t helping. But she spotted a tall figure with blonde hair near the building, barking out orders and making sure nothing else went wrong, and she smiled.

“Will!” she called out as she ducked under the tape, walking closer to the lieutenant.

He turned to her immediately and frowned. “What the—”

“I heard about the murders and came as fast as I could. What happened?"

He blinked beneath the mask, trying to restrain himself from picking her up and carrying her workaholic, idiotic ass back home. “Lauren, you really shouldn’t be here—”

“What happened, William?” she asked again, weariness slowly seeping into her voice.

“You could barely keep your head up this morning, you are in no condition to even try and help with this investigation,” Will tried to reason with her.

“As I told you this morning,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. I will ask one more time, Will, what happened—”

She noticed it for a split second, but it was enough.

A shadowy figure dashed over the rooftops of the building closest to the crime scene. The officers behind her began yelling and sprinting after the shadow, intending to catch whoever it was.

“Lauren,” Will warned, his hand reaching for her sleeve, “Don’t you dare—"

She was running before he could grab her.

Lauren ran alongside her colleagues, taking out her gun as she eyed the figure above them. Whoever it was, they were fast, and she knew she’d lose them unless she got to higher ground. Her gaze shifted from one house to another, attempting to locate the easiest way to get onto the roofs – and she found one, a house with a steep enough roof she could climb onto.

Voices perked up as she climbed, calling her name, begging her to come down. But the only thing she could focus on was the ache of her limbs and the black spots in her vision as she stood on the roof and caught sight of their suspect running away.

She could not see them well, they were too far away – but there was something familiar about them.

She began chasing after them once more, praying to the gods to keep her on her feet. She didn’t need her colleagues to acknowledge that this was a horrible thing to even attempt in her current state, yet she kept going.

There was no point in this pursuit because there was no way she’d catch them. She knew this well. But Lauren couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew them – the way they moved as they raced across the rooftops reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t decipher who. She just needed to get a little closer, she thought, and maybe she’d succeed.

But there was a low chance for that because they were nearing the edge of a roof, and every fiber of her being told her that they were going to get away before she could even lay a finger on them. Not to mention she was feeling more ill every second. But Lauren Sinclair was stubborn, and there was no way in hell she’d give up so quickly.

She raised her gun, aiming for the suspect’s back—

When they swiftly turned around, right as they stepped onto the very edge of the building, threw off their hood and shouted: “Stop!”

Lauren immediately lowered her weapon and stopped running, almost stumbling from the rough halt.

Kieran.

“Please—” he said, his arms shooting up in defense. “Please, let me explain—"

She raised her gun again, cocking it faster than she ever has in her entire life. “What the hell is this?” she yelled.

Of course, it was him. I know the way he moves; the quickness and quietness in his steps, the jumping from one high place to another, keeping in the shadows.

I should’ve known.

“Look, I couldn’t have told you even if I wanted to. I received this mission a few hours ago and I couldn’t wait, it was urgent—”

“Urgent?” she eyed the blood sprayed all over his clothes as she spoke. Whatever he had done to the victims, it was brutal.

“They wanted it done tonight, I couldn’t refuse.”

“You could’ve tried—”

“No,” he reasoned, “I couldn’t have. It was either I complied or—”

“Why’d the Leader want them dead?” she interrupted him. Her finger still rested comfortably against the trigger.

“From what I’ve gathered, they made a mistake and were a hazard to one of the Leader’s missions.”

“Could they have been important to us?”

“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “I didn’t have enough time—"

“Oh, you didn’t have enough time, did you now?” shut cut him off, anger bubbling in her throat. “That’s funny, because you never—” she gasped softly as pain suddenly shot through her skull like lighting, making her vision dim and her body go numb. The gun dropped from her hands and her knees met the cold rooftop. Her elbows rested on her knees as she held her head in her hands, trying to shake away the horrible ache.

She heard his footsteps quickly drawing nearer. “Are you okay?” he asked, a kind of sweet worry in his voice.

She hated it. She hated him.

“Don’t you fucking dare—” she grabbed her gun, her arm barely strong enough to lift it and aim it at the assassin. “I don’t want your help.”

“Lauren—”

“I don’t want your help,” she repeated with much more force.

Silence crept over them and neither of them moved; her kneeling on the ground and him staring at her, debating with himself if he should listen to her or not. It did not last quickly, for a minute later she heard a soft thud somewhere nearby as he slipped away from her and into the starless night.

She stayed like that for a while, waiting for her body to recover even a little so she could drag herself back home. She was utterly and completely exhausted, and it felt like her body was on the brink of shutting down.

And the entire time, she couldn’t stop thinking about Kieran.

Every time they tried to mend what had been broken in that horrible cave, it was somehow ruined. Both members of Lune were stubborn, selfish, and unable to put aside their mistakes and burdens. They were bad for each other and yet they kept going because they couldn’t trust anyone else. They were both thirsty for revenge and knew that there was no one else better to take down the Scythe.  
An assassin and a police officer – the most qualified and willing to go against the enemy that had kept their entire city restless for years now.

But there were moments when she wished she had never met him.

Sometimes, she wished she could go back in time and stop herself from ever chasing after him.

And, rarely, when everything was unbearable and too hard to deal with, she wished she had pulled the trigger that faithful night three months ago.

**Author's Note:**

> I was rereading Purple Hyacinth for the tenth time and wondered what episodes two and three would look like after Lune's... incident in episode 43 and their current dynamic. Needless to say, it's not very pretty.  
> Thank you to Ju for always being the first one to read my fics and scream at me about how much you want to punch me. Much appreciated. But also not thank you because of all the angsty edits you send me. This is your fault, in some way.  
> Thank you to my other friends who suffer with me when I have writer's block and when I torture them with not remembering words.  
> And thank you to whoever reads my fics - you mean the world to me.


End file.
